In an interview with ETtech's Vikas SN, Mehrotra talks about how they have changed their approach to engage with smaller startups and developers as well as academic institutions. Edited excerpts -

What is the role of the newly formed DBG (Digital Business Group) within in India?

At IBM, we transform every 10-15 years. We have gone from hardware to services to software and now to a cloud and cognitive platform.

A platform is fundamentally very different from a solution or a product since it allows you to appeal to millions of people. In a platform approach, consumption is not necessarily driven by big customers but also driven by individuals.

That said, being a platform is easier said than done. It's a huge mindset change to shift your focus from working with 500 customers to working with a million developers.

You also now need to appeal to a broader set of people who have never thought of working with IBM. For instance, it could be a small trader, a small SME customer, a startup or an individual. This is what we are trying to do through the new Digital business group.

How have you changed your approach to reach out to startups and developers?

We are trying to think of an outside-in approach instead of an inside-out approach. You have to get people to try and experience your platform.

For startups, we want to work with them in a more friendlier manner. We are not trying to sell them stuff, rather we want them to consume the platform. Part of this startup engagement is through accelerators, investors like Kalaari and other partnerships that our customers might themselves have. Some of our customers are also setting up their own accelerators to support startups.

Our biggest challenge is however working with developers since they have not really heard of IBM in the new avatar. Reaching out to them and having them experience the platform is very important part of our mission.

Our goal is to have 200,000 - 300,000 developers experience the IBM platform this year. There are 3.5 million developers in India but if you curate the developers that are focused on artificial intelligence and set of technologies that are more relevant to the future, then we will pick the 200,000 - 300,000 of the most impactful developers.

Going ahead, we will also be working with academic institutes including schools, colleges and universities. We've previously worked with IIM Bangalore, IIM Ahmedabad and IITs and have worked with ICT in Tamil Nadu to offer certifications to colleges. We are now trying to strengthen our partnership in ICT to reach out to more colleges.

Few weeks back, we were looking at what are the students getting certified in, and realized none of the stuff is relevant in tomorrow's world. So, we are exploring how do we shift that towards more relevant things and introduce softer skills like design thinking into the curriculum for engineering institutes.

How has the engagement with startups changed over the years?

We have made our programs more wholesome. It is not just about giving credits and free access to the platform but also providing mentoring in a holistic way like HR and finance among others. We are also getting better at how we understand and reach out to startups.

Another aspect is the way we approach our GTM (Go To Market) with our customers. We get startups and customers get together so that they can work together in a more interactive manner.

Any specific sectors you are looking in terms of engaging with startups?

We are very focused on deep tech like AI, blockchain, using commerce or health technologies because ultimately that will be the differentiator for a startup to succeed over another one.

We are not selective from an industry standpoint, but fintech and retail commerce is big in India, so we obviously focus on those sectors. We ourselves are very big in fintech and health, so they naturally become more attractive to a startup. The fact that 90% of the global fintech finance transactions happen on some kind of an IBM platform has a huge attraction to startups.

IBM doesn't enjoy significant mindshare among startups as of now. How do you plan to change that?

Our biggest challenge is that people don't know that we are focused on the startup ecosystem in the country. That said, we have gone to mentoring 1,000 startups within a reasonable short period of time, compared to others.

The key differentiator we are bringing to the table is that the platform is more enterprise oriented due to our legacy. We are hoping that this will encourage startups to actually build world class products and can be scaled more rapidly around the world.

We know hundreds of instances of startups not having good quality products when they start to scale globally. They might survive due to the huge consumer base in India but they don't have either the deep tech differentiation or the ability to scale their product in terms of quality needed to go global.

In deep tech, how are you seeing the quality of startups in India changing over the years?

I see the change in the last one year itself, wherein startups are using deep tech to solve real tough problems in areas like Sanitation, health, education, transportation and energy management. As they get more focused on solving real problems, the impact they make in the country will be bigger.

How has IBM's partnership with Kalaari and Indian Angel Network evolved?

It's been a year since we started working together and have run a bunch of things together. We are excited about their involvement and interactions. This year, we like to get deeper into few areas and play a more wholesome role.

Is IBM looking at similar partnerships?

We already have similar partnerships with organizations like Nasscom 10,000 startups and The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) and iSpirit. We also work closely with 5-6 venture capitalist firms to help take deep tech to their portfolio companies.